Stateline Northern Territory

Adelaide River flood damage

MELINDA JAMES:Just describe for us what the scene was like when the flood was at its peak.

JADE BOAK:It peaked around about 2pm on Saturday and it was quite fierce and widespread. It came suddenly...a lot of people did not have the opportunity to get awareness that it was coming.

MELINDA JAMES:How does the scale of this flood compare to floods from past wet seasons?

JADE BOAK:Approximately a metre-and-a-half higher than last year’s floods after the cyclone. But that metre-and-a-half was enough to actually cause further widespread damage. Because the river was so full it just spilled its banks and caused more damage further a field.

MELINDA JAMES:Has the flooding affected your livelihood and the livelihood of other people who own businesses up and down the Adelaide River?

JADE BOAK:It's a set back but the people on the river who rely on family, friends and the community will all pitch in and help them clean up. They'll lose quite a bit of money because they won't be able to open on time. They've already lost the next month of tourism that we do get now here in the wet. So financially it would affect everybody.

MELINDA JAMES:Have some people lost everything?

JADE BOAK:Yeah. It ranges from $5,000 probably to about $150,000.

MELINDA JAMES:Describe to us how the clean-up effort worked. Was it solely community driven?

JADE BOAK:The community of Adelaide River have got out and helped themselves. I think we rely...because it's family life out there, everybody knows each other. We don't get any support from Government but these are serious floods. These are floods that...we can't stop them, y'know. It's just the weather up there and if they decide to drop a lot of rain on us.

MELINDA JAMES:Would you like to see some help from the Government? A Government funded community emergency response group?

JADE BOAK:Well definitely. It affects businesses that don't live on the river. We have a number of crocodile farms that actually rely on the eggs of the crocodiles out on the rivers too. So I think a warning centre or something should be set up that we should know within 24 hours of what the river rainfall has been further down the river which takes normally 12 hours to 24 hour period to get to victims that are going to be in flooded areas.

MELINDA JAMES:How do you feel about the response of essential services?

JADE BOAK:Pretty poor, actually. I mean, last year we had a cyclone come through in the exact same areas - right through Marrakai, Cooroboree, out through South Alligator, Jabiru. They all got flooded and it seems that we haven't learnt anything to try to provide assistance to people that are actually sitting on their balconies or on their roofs - cannot cook, cannot wash with fresh water - and it's taken this year 5 days to get services out to those areas.

MELINDA JAMES:Does this make you think twice about your future in investing in this area given that it will flood again?